Contemporay+Aboriginal+Spiritualities

__Outline the importance of Mabo, Wik and the Native Title for the Land Rights movement__ Mabo and Wik were two court cases which both established precedents and marked major turning points in native title in Australia. The Mabo v. Queensland case took place in 1992 and it required the High Court to consider the legal status of the declaration of Terra Nullius. The High Court ruled that the Murray Islanders had native title rights. These rights included: possession of the islands, occupation of the islands and the enjoyment and use of traditional lands. This was very important as it was the first step for the Aboriginal people to claim the land which belonged to them and their ancestor’s centuries before the European settlement. This ruling gained recognition that the Aboriginal people were the traditional custodian of Australia. The Mabo decision paved the way for the Indigenous to claim land and native title. Native title is the collection of individual or group rights and interests held by indigenous people in relation to land and water. The High Court did not specify which parts of Australia would be subject to native title but suggested the following: state forests, national parks and public reserves, beaches, land held by government agencies and land owned by government but held in trust for Indigenous Australians, such as Aboriginal reserves. The Wik case took place in 1996 claiming native title rights to their traditional lands that were now subject to pastoral leases. The court found that pastoral leases and native title could co-exist at the same time on the same piece of land. However, the court made the provision that were the two types of land tenure came in conflict, the lease would prevail. This meant that Aboriginal people could claim native title on all lands but if a lease was in place the land must be shared between the two parties. __Describe the effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spirituality__ Dispossession took place to ‘protect’ the Indigenous people and allowing the taking of large tracts of land for pastoral purposes. The protection policy allowed the government to take the Aboriginal people away from their land and put them into reserves. In most reserves big ceremonial gatherings and movement of the kin from one place to another was forbidden. Within the reserves, people were offered refuge from the violence in the world but this safety often lead to cultural oppression. The aspects of culture that were often oppressed were language and ceremony. This led to many aboriginal people not being able to perform their traditional ceremonies and speak in their native tongue. The protection policy was followed by the assimilation policy; recently know as The Stolen Generations. The Stolen Generations took place between the 1950s and 1970s. During this time as many as 100 000 children were separated from their families. By separating Indigenous people from their families and traditional background, it was hoped that they would adopt European culture. The children taken away lost their identity, their culture, language and spirituality. Many children were never reunited with their mothers. Due to these policies Aboriginal spiritually and culture has slowly died out. The children taken away from their parents had no chance of learning the stories of the dreaming and be taught by the elders. Aboriginal spiritually was passed down orally and as the younger generations were taken away, fewer people heard the stories of the dreaming and this resulted in these stories being lost and altered dramatically. Dispossession destroyed the connection between the Aboriginal people and their land, the most sacred thing to the Aboriginal people.